Friday, November 15, 2013

It's been busy here at NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING since we published our Winter-Spring issue of this newsletter back in March. We've had a lot of shooting to do this year, which got a little tough here in Western Montana as we had one of the hottest summers on record, with a record number of days into the mid to high 90's. Still, we managed to get it done, doing all of our shooting early in the morning, when temperatures were right at 50 degrees. Generally, we would get in about two hours of shooting before the temperature topped 65 - and that's when we would load up and head back to the office.

We had two new rifles to wring out, the .50 Traditions VORTEK StrikerFire and the .50 Redemption from LHR Sporting Arms - and through summer and early fall we managed to put about 500 rounds through each. Our early report on the Redemption can be found at http://www.namlhunt.com/mlrifle8.html . And our first report on the VORTEK StrikerFire can be found at http://www.namlhunt.com/mlrifle9.html . That's the VORTEK StrikerFire in the photo above right.

Deer and elk hunting seasons have been underway here in Montana for about three weeks, and I've gotten in 9 days of hunting - passing on three whitetail bucks. Two were small 4x4's, and one was an equally small 5x5. All had, at most, 14 inch spreads. So far, I've seen just one bull elk...headed up a ridge almost two miles away in the last 15 minutes of daylight. I put in two more days on that ridge and never saw him again. Early next week, a hunting partner and I are headed over to the Missouri Breaks to spend 7 or 8 days hunting big mule deer and river-bottom whitetails. Hopefully I'll be able to share the details of a successful hunt on the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING website before the end of the year. In addition to hunting deer, I also plan to do some fall turkey hunting...and busting a few pheasants with a muzzleloading shotgun.

The website has grown...a lot...since last year. In fact, as this is written, this year we've added 61 new pages...and intend to add 4 more to the 2013 Article-Report menu before the end of the year. Between now and the first of the year, we're also working to upscale the look of the site a bit as well. To help the nearly 150 or so pages currently found at www.namlhunt.com to download quicker, we're also making the navigation of the site less cluttered by publishing a series of navigation pages, eliminating the huge drop down link menu that often took 20 or 30 seconds to download. Here's a look at how we've simplified the 2013 Article-Report page -

The 2012 Article-Report menu has already been re-constructed in the same manner, and before January 1, 2014 the 2011 article and report menu will receive the same treatment.

If you've spent much time on the website over the past couple of months, then you've surely noticed that we are providing more coverage for the older style traditional muzzleloaders. Our goal is to ALWAYS keep on providing the same great coverage of modern muzzleloading as we have in the past, and to expand our coverage of the traditional side of our sport. Muzzleloading at all levels has gotten way too fragmented. There is still way to much bickering between modern minded muzzleloading hunters and purist traditional muzzleloading hunters. Here at NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING...muzzleloading is muzzleloading - and we will represent both sides of the sport.

Our industry also needs to do some serious organizing. As a rule, most muzzleloader oriented companies are now doing little to nothing to promote and build muzzleloader hunting opportunities. Here's a look at that problem...and how the muzzleloading industry needs to model itself after the archery industry...or we just might begin losing way too many muzzleloader hunting opportunities -

If you are successful in your hunts this fall and winter, send us a few photos and details of your hunts so we can share them with others. Traffic on the NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING website has gone through the roof. For the 12 month period from November 1, 2012 to October 31, 2013, the website was called upon 3,057,315 times by the muzzleloading hunters of North America - 419,766 times in October alone.

Thank you for helping make the site Today's No. 1 Source For Muzzleloader Hunting Information. - Toby Bridges, NORTH AMERICAN MUZZLELOADER HUNTING

LEGISLATIVE ALERT!

A Petition has been filed to legalize Blackhorn 209 in Nevada. The State of Nevada is the ONLY state to ban the use of this modern top-performing muzzleloader hunting propellant by name. Take a few minutes to send the Nevada Wildlife Commission a message - that muzzleloading hunters need to make those decisions...not a board made up of affluent residents appointed by the Governor who do not hunt with a muzzleloader...or who, very likely, have never even shot a muzzleloader. Legalization of the powder will be a topic of discussion at the December 6th commission meeting. If you have not already, send an e-mail in support of this black powder substitute. For more details and a link and an e-mail address where you can comment - Click Here.

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About Me

I'm a very outdoor oriented person, and over the years I have made a career out of working with outdoor product manufacturers and suppliers, mostly through marketing, marketing promotion or public relations. Additionally, I am an outdoor writer and outdoor photographer, plus host several popular outdoor related websites.